Kalu's Hideaway Udawalawe

An attractive hotel in a splendid riverside setting. The gardens are varied and beautiful. It’s well positioned for the local attractions. Rooms comfortable and food very good. Worth extending your visit beyond just the safari and elephant feeding.

Beautifully appointed hotel, excellent well trained staff. Our room was spotless with great aircon. The pool was beautiful with comfortable loungers. I loved the extensive gardens and fabulous view over the river where we watched lots of the local wildlife. Many of the vegetables grown turned up on the menu. Sadly the food was not as good as we anticipated which was a pity. I had a fantastic massage in the spa, incredibly relaxing and expertly done. The cricket memorabilia was a bit lost on us but nonetheless impressive. Highly recommend and only 4 stars due to the disappointment of the food.

Lovely boutique hotel hidden away in Udawalawe in a tranquil setting. We had a standard room which was spacious with all required amenities - air con, fridge, safe, toiletries etc so great for our 1 night stay during our tour of Sri Lanka and not far from the wonderful elephant transit centre. Comfortable bed and pillows with cool cotton sheets for a good night’s rest and very quiet too. Buffet provided for breakfast & evening meal so enough choice to satisfy us. Nice pool area and landscaped gardens. Great cricket memorabilia so my husband was very happy! The only minor things were the poor intermittent WiFi and the shower was slow but that didn’t spoil our stay in this peaceful hotel.

The hotel is the least hospitable hotel I have stayed in for about 20 years . On arrival at reception the only words spoken by the staff was to ask to see our passports and then we were taken to our room . The only comment you could give on the room is that it was generally dirty and poorly maintained although bed linen was fresh. The restaurant served the poorest food I have been served and the least tasty in Sri Lanka. Breakfast was a poor offering and unsurprisingly poor quality. If we had been staying for more than one night we would have sought another hotel. The hotel setting and layout has a great potential to be special but unfortunately it has been run down with staff appearing to be poorly motivated.

Great hotel very near the national park , we had a lot of rain before and during our stay but still managed to see a lot of animals and birds on our safari…. the food here is exceptional- we were so well looked after by Chef Peter - the restaurant serves lots of produce from its own gardens - our stay for 2 nights was a great memory of Sri Lanka!

I have very mixed feelings about this hotel and that is why my review is as it is. Firstly the bedroom, we were told this was the only hotel to stay in in the Udawalawe area so we accepted a standard room. The room was on the ground floor and was incredibly dated and the bathroom very tired. A very very small window let in a small amount of natural light and the room must have been next to the kitchen as it was incredibly noisy with voices and kitchen noises up until late at night and then again from around 5am. I may as well have been sleeping in the kitchen itself! There was also a door to a very small concrete high walled courtyard which was shared by the room next door which didn't seem to have any purpose at all. The meal we ate at dinner was average at best (probably the worst I had all holiday) and I barely ate anything and the same went for my mum and daughter. We went out on safari early so didn't experience the breakfast but the staff gave us 2 pieces of cake and 3 small bananas for 3 of us to take with us. Now the positives, the staff were lovely and extremely helpful, the pool area was very clean and the pool lovely and warm and the complimentary head massage on arrival was very welcome, so much so that I booked a massage which was one of the best massages I have had. Just a shame my experience overall was tainted by the room experience.